Fact and Fiction – the bias of persons with disabilities
“Oh, you work with the dummies.” or “I’m better than he is.” These are a few statements that my father heard when he worked with persons with disabilities. He said that many people looked at them with pity or disgust. There would be disparaging remarks made, but my father said that many had great respect for the persons with disabilities that he worked with.
My father taught a class of persons with moderate disabilities real world home skills; laundry, cooking, and cleaning. The final “exam” was the students prepared their own meal and the parents were invited to attend. While the dinner overall was a success, one parent was upset that my father took the time to teach those skills. She thought that her son was incapable of doing anything without her. When my father told those stories to me, we discussed that the biases that people with disabilities deal with every day may have started in their own homes with their parents.
This is a sad thought. A lot of what we think about the world is based on the families and people who surrounded us growing up. It is not just racial or religious biases that people are raised with but that people with disabilities are often thought to be inferior. A bias is a belief where facts just bounce right off.
It is with this in mind, that we will venture down the rabbit hole of myths or biases of persons with disabilities and see if we can change the beliefs to facts.
Employ Abilities has a list of “Myths about hiring persons with disabilities” and they discuss the misconceptions of this underutilized labor force. I have chosen a couple to expand upon.
MYTH: Employees with disabilities have a higher absentee rate than employees without disabilities.
FACT: Studies have shown that absences are the same no matter what the ability of the person is. Everyone gets sick. Everyone calls out for appointments or illness.
MYTH: Someone will always have to help them.
FACT: I have personally seen that myth fall apart. Proper training will help anyone succeed in their position. I watch people with disabilities complete their assigned tasks quicker and with more enthusiasm than those without any disabilities. They can operate the machinery. They can follow standards set by OSHA. To put it simply, anyone can learn a job if taught properly. Even the smartest and abled persons do not succeed without someone helping them
MYTH: It costs too much to accommodate the disabilities.
FACT: Not everyone has the same disabilities. You may not have to retrofit a building for a person with a disability. A lot of the accommodations may just require flexibility or creativity. However, if you read my last blog, you would already know the tax credits available to help cover the costs needed to update facilities or get the proper forms of materials to be able to train them. Feel free to click here to learn about the Work Opportunity Credit and Disabled Access Credit.
MYTH: I can not fire or discipline an employee with a disability.
FACT: Just as your regular employees can be disciplined or fired, the same is true of a person with a disability. There are rules you must follow with all employees. Make sure they understand the policies and procedures and the expectations for the job duties assigned. If there is an issue with the performance of duties, as with any employee, the employer must understand if there was a miscommunication, look for solutions, document, and possibly train again. You can fire or discipline anyone for misconduct at work but not for a disability. There are specifically three conditions: termination is not related to the disability, the employee does not meet legitimate requirements, or they pose a direct threat to the health or safety in the workplace.
MYTH: Individuals with disabilities do not have the education required.
FACT: Over half of all persons with disabilities have high school diplomas or certificates of completion. Some may have an associate or bachelor’s degree. The high school graduation rates for students with disabilities nationwide was 67.1% for the 2016-2017 school year which was up from the 65.5% the previous year. In the 2019-2020 school year in the state of Virginia, 90.4% of students with disabilities graduated on time. That is an estimated 166,335 persons graduating on time.
MYTH: Individuals with disabilities will never be able to do more than menial jobs.
FACT: Let us just stop to think about that… below are just a few people who did more than just menial jobs and amounted to a lot more than people probably believed they would.
From top left to bottom right:
Franklin D Roosevelt – The only 4 term U.S. President
– polio induced paralysis
Stephen Hawking – Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University – ALS
Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder – musicians – blind
Mozart – Composer – narrow focus often found in autistic persons
Michelangelo – painter and sculptor – autistic tendencies that manifested as inability to form long-term attachments and other eccentricities
Marlee Matlin – Golden Globe and Academy Award winning actress – deaf since she was 18 months old due to a birth defect
The main point in all of this is best said by Meriah Nichols, deaf, with C-PTSD and TBI. “All we really want is a chance – a level playing field where we can kick some ass, contribute and do a little office dancing.” Who does not like a little office dancing?
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